Why GMO labeling really failed in Washington State: stop whining

Here’s a question for you. During the campaign for Prop 37 in California, and the campaign for Prop 522 in the state of Washington, the ballot measures to label GMO food, did you see political ads like this:

“Hello. My name is… I’m a researcher with a long track record. I study what’s in your food. I know that Monsanto, the company that puts genes in your food and sells a toxic herbicide called Roundup, which is also in your food, wants Prop 522 to fail. They don’t want you to know what’s in your food. I’m willing to debate Monsanto anytime, anywhere. Their GMOs and their Roundup are toxic, unhealthy. Vote Yes on 522, so you don’t have to eat Monsanto.”

No, you didn’t see an ad like that.

So why did Prop 522 go down to defeat?

What’s that? Oh, it was those big bad food corporations that donated $22 million to shoot it down. That’s why. I mean, who could have seen that coming? What a shock. Who could have predicted it? Whine, whine, complain, complain.

What did Yes on 522 leaders think was going to happen? Did they think the bad guys were going to reach into their wallets and pull out a few thousand bucks and leave it at that?

And on Democracy Now, David Bronner, who donated the most $$ to Yes on 522, intimated the big-money effort to defeat 522 “was the Republicans.” Wow. That’s the answer?

I’ve quoted the communication director of Yes on 522, Elizabeth Larter (twitter), saying the WA labeling campaign was only about people having the right to know what’s in their food, not about good GMOs or bad GMOs. How weak. How very, very weak. How false.

Following on the heels of Prop 37’s defeat in California, which was “a right to know” wimpoid effort, I was told it would be different in Washington State. Yes on 522 would really go after Monsanto full-bore. The gloves would come off.

Didn’t happen. Wasn’t ever in the cards.

“Oh, but you see, the right to know what’s in your food is just part of a much bigger strategy. For voters (who are stupid and don’t have a clue they’re eating poison), you go soft: you tell them ‘you have a right to know.’ It’s all about waking up the sleeping masses (a little bit). Educating them (a tiny bit).

“Meanwhile, on the activist front, it’s attack attack Monsanto 24/7.”

And this double-barreled brilliance will bring us into port. In the end, we’ll win and Monsanto will go down to crushing defeat.

Really?

Spend all the money you have on the labeling initiatives (with two losses now in the books), and then, on a shoestring, get those millions of angry Americans out in the streets against Monsanto and DuPont and Syngenta. I see. Right.

What’s happening is this: huge numbers of Americans are being lulled to sleep by the labeling initiatives. “Yeah, it’s great, people can vote for labeling and that’ll solve the problem. It’s wonderful. The system works. I’ll vote when it comes my time. Meanwhile, zzzzz, I think I’ll take a nap.”

Let me run down the underlying factors here. Start with this: when things have been going against you for too long, when the bad guys (Monsanto) have overrun the field and taken it for their own, when they hold political and economic power, when they’re the insiders, do you say, “Well, we can’t fight them directly and win, we can’t go for the throat and publicize their crimes, we have to soft-pedal it, we have to tread lightly, we have to coexist with them, it’s too late to try to rip away all their victories and territory, we have to go through a different door”?

Is that what you say? Is that what you do?

Analogy: “Look, the government has taken away so many of our freedoms, we can’t just demand all that freedom back, no, we have to start small and easy, we have to ask for the right to label ourselves free and win back the right to cross the street—because it’s too late.”

No. When it’s too late, you go all the way. Now. You show everyone the crimes of the oppressor, for starters. Up front. Immediately.

“You’re eating poison and we can prove it.” Lead with that. Don’t be shy. Don’t tap dance.

Reveal the threat.

Why do you think millions of young people took to the streets to protest the Vietnam War? Because they saw the threat to themselves. They knew they could get drafted. They knew they could get sent to the jungle to get their asses shot off.

Reveal the threat. Right up front. Right away. Lead with that. “You’re eating poison.” Don’t hide behind “right to know what’s in your food.”

“Oh but you see, our polls show voters want a softer message. Polls show and our experts tell us we have to go easy.”

Have you been hiding under a rock? Have you missed seeing thousands of political campaign ads? The negative ads that actually work?

“Oh but you see, we did tell people during the 522 campaign that GMOs aren’t healthy. We did do that.”

Yeah, a few of you did that, way down the line after you broadcast the main theme, which was “right to know what’s in your food.”

“Oh but you see, Americans are in such a deep hypnotic state these days, we have to go soft.”

Really? When people are down in the subterranean caverns of Nod, you’re going to tap them lightly on the shoulder and tell them they have a right to know something? Where did you get that PR gem from?

“Oh but you see, those of us in the trenches working so hard to get these ballot initiatives passed, so we can have labeling…don’t be hard on us. We’re trying. Don’t be nasty…”

I know you’re working yourselves to the bone. I’m talking about your leaders, the ones who are setting the agenda and bankrolling the whole thing. They’re the ones. They’re making all the mistakes. They’re leading with the wrong message. They’re willing to coexist with Monsanto. They’re directing you to say over and over again, “You have a right to know what’s in your food.” Instead of: “Monsanto is poisoning people.”

David Bronner, in that Democracy Now interview, also said the big bioetch-ag companies are afraid of the “right to know what’s in your food” message. Really? It’s been a loser for anti-GMO forces twice now, in CA and WA.

“Oh but you see, we came close in CA, we only lost by a little, and in WA the vote count is showing we’re creeping up closer there, too. And one of these days, we’re going to win one, we’ll win a ballot initiative, and then other states will follow suit and the dominoes will fall in our favor.”

A loss is a loss. And what makes you think you’ll provoke a domino effect before Monsanto achieves a fait accompli and just about all farmland in the US is blanketed with GMO crops and drifting Monsanto genes?

A real campaign against Monsanto is about relentlessly showing people the threat to their health. Putting that front and center. Every day. Overwhelming the mainstream media. Attacking Monsanto head-on.

Polls in New Hampshire show that 90% of voters want GMO labeling. So last week, a legislative committee voted against a GMO labeling bill, and it recommended the full legislature kill it. Does that tell you something?

The fix is in. It’s in on so many levels.

The self-appointed leaders in the Yes on Prop 37 and 522 labeling initiatives have been playing the wrong tune. They’ve been using a feather to knock over a giant.

To all those who have been working for them, who have been laboring for months, for years, to get GMO labeling, and to those who may work for them up the road, I say—demand to meet with them; refuse to work for them unless you get that meeting where everybody has to lay his cards on the table. Demand to know why “you have a right to know what’s in your food” is the leading message and the only out-front message. Make them explain themselves and don’t settle for easy answers. Make them explain why they won’t go after Monsanto with real power in these campaigns, why they won’t nail Monsanto to the wall.

“Oh but you see, we couldn’t do that. You want us to actually meet with the health-food CEOs who are bankrolling the ballot initiatives and question them, question their strategy, raise serious doubts, air it all out, before we work for them? I’ve never heard of anything like that. That wouldn’t be…nice.”

Exactly, and as we all know, Nice is what this whole thing is about, isn’t it? Nice is God. Nice is, well, so nice.

Is it working?

Or do you need political ads like this: “Monsanto. Remember Agent Orange, the poison sprayed all over Vietnam that caused widespread cancer? Monsanto made it. They’re the same people who say you don’t need to know they injected genes in your food. You don’t need to know that Roundup, their toxic herbicide, is in the food you eat every day. You don’t need to know. Do you buy that?…”

“Oh, but your see, we can’t run ads like that. We could get sued by Monsanto.”

Really? Your 1st Amendment right is trumped by Monsanto, a corporation? If so, let them bring a suit. Run an ad that says, “Monsanto is now suing us for false statements. Bring it on! We’re happy to go into court and prove that GMO food and Roundup have dangerous health effects on you, the people who eat their food. When’s the court date? We’ll be there with our experts. Vote Yes on 522!”

What’s that? Television stations wouldn’t let you run attack ads against Monsanto? Then sue the stations for abridgment of your 1st Amendment rights. And run hundreds of ads on the Web, on sites that residents of WA look at: “Guess what? We’re Yes on 522 and television stations in WA won’t run our ads. They’re scared of Monsanto. They’re shutting down our right to free speech. What are they hiding? These stations don’t want you to know there’s something bad and unhealthy in your food. They don’t want you to have the right to know what’s in your food…”

That’s where “right to know” comes in. That’s how you use it. That’s how you attack. That’s how you go balls to the wall.

The author of two explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED and EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at www.nomorefakenews.com

Hat dies auf Julia etc. rebloggt und kommentierte:
“Polls in New Hampshire show that 90% of voters want GMO labeling. So last week, a legislative committee voted against a GMO labeling bill, and it recommended the full legislature kill it. Does that tell you something?”

The actions of Individuals, each and every one of us ‘Out Here’ is what motivates and builds substantial legislation. The rest may as well be empty effort. Labeling is a very weak platform ! It simply exposes a Lie for the lie that it is. The thing is, the lie Can’t be exposed, or the Liars would then be revealing their deceptions to be true. The fact is, they could care less about what the people Want.. that’s a non issue here. All that is important is the control ( there’s the ‘double blind’ study for you already complete, but no they obviously don’t care !) I have a question for us.. where are our spiritual counterpart’s voice’s in this issue ? How bout They step in and Demand a count of their constituents? Any one of Them willing to make a stand ‘For The People of God’ here? Anyone ?? What about it… let’s count our Religious factions in this Power Game…. they are well endowed when it comes to fighting plagues of nature. Hello? We could use a little of That influence on This battle field ! ??

Here in Hawai’i the biotech make their presence “FELT” at every level.
With Black Ops (or whatever their new name is), China ‘boots on the ground’
and threats, it is becoming more difficult – ck. out our Facebook GMO FREE pages (ie GMO FREE Kauai – each Island) We have two BILLS pending. Kauai -Pesticide disclosure and Hawai’i Island GMO.
“do you need political ads like this: “Monsanto. Remember Agent Orange, the poison sprayed all over Vietnam that caused widespread cancer? Monsanto made it. They’re the same people who say you don’t need to know they injected genes in your food. You don’t need to know that Roundup, their toxic herbicide, is in the food you eat every day. You don’t need to know. Do you buy that?…” PLEASE take a minute to read his article – I think people are afraid! Black ops, et…

Milquetoast ‘liberals’ don’t mind losing as long as they can feel self-righteous, is all I can figure. These are all my (former?) friends, so no, I’m no Repug. But pathetic is pathetic.

Another example–a lesser-evil Dem voting friend insists that the key to fixing all that is wrong in the US is ‘getting $ out of politics’. No suggestion on how he expects that to be done in an utterly corrupt system that robs us blind, monitors our every electronic act, treats us like soylent green, and commits genocide around the world. I suggest something stronger might be required, like education on all those issues combined with a general strike and/or recall of all national-level politicians…or, he can give me suggestion with half a chance of bringing real change. Silence. But secession is certainly not something that ought to be considered. But he earnestly believes he’s in favor of a solution, so he gets to feel good.

Same friend–minimum wage should be raised to $15/hr, but can’t be bothered to study the issue in any depth whatsoever. I ask what he thinks that would do to unemployment, silence. I suggest a smaller government that focuses its efforts on punishing fraud and preventing, rather than enforcing, monopoly, might do more to fix our problems. Confused silence. ‘But, but…the gov’t should be a trustworthy agent to order the details of our lives.’ He’s a believer in centralized power and collectivism, just wants it to be exercised in the common interest (by PhDs like him, preferably scientists! ha ha).

Everything you said about your frustration with your friend’s inability to understand ‘small and just government’ is what us voluntaryists feel about your inability to understand that government, all government, is a moral and practical disgrace. Please visit my site for numerous articles elaborating on this.

I’m open enough to that idea to check it out, but not particularly convinced. Seems to me to lead to a ‘might makes right’ world.

I watched a debate at Tragedy & Hope with Larkin Rose, for instance, but I didn’t think he came out too well on that one. For instance, he argued for strictly voluntary methods for resolving disputes. Gosh, I’ll go find the guy who stole my car, and see how he wants to resolve it.

I don’t think your analogy is all that accurate. What you are calling for is something that no one really has any experience with, whereas a limited gov’t centered around individualism vs collectivism is the heritage of the US (warts and all) around which a great many people could rally.

I share your distaste for gov’t, but am inclined to view it as a necessary evil. When humanity becomes saints, there will be no need for gov’t and indeed it will have withered away.

In the meantime, even if we were to agree on the goal of no gov’t, I have a hard time imagining an instant leap to that state of affairs. In other words, it strikes me as pie in the sky, neither here nor there.

Either a person believes it is possible for others to change their minds, or it is not possible.

If it is possible for others to change their minds and accept a ‘limited’ government, then they can accept no government.

I agree it might be harder, but not pie in the sky.

The average person in the West has been so conditioned that the difference in difficulty between convincing them of the evils of ‘excessive government’ and the evils of government in itself, seem trivial compared with the task of undoing groupthink, sense of entitlement, nihilism and a closet love of violence.

GJH – unfortunately being degreed doesn’t mean you’ve been well educated. Many well ‘schooled’ people limit their critical thinking to their own narrow specialites. That training is basically vocational and not the kind of classical liberal education which marks a well educated person. You’re not likely to be given this kind of classical education unless you’ve attended one of the private prep schools attended by the children of the so-called ‘elites’. (The tools for learning known as the Trivium include general grammar, logic, and rhetoric. They are available to anyone who take the effort to learn them. This can be done for very little (or no) money.)

As for the GMO issue, there needs to be an approach on the rational and emotional levels. Give people the facts, and get angry at what these *&^% poison pushers have been doing to us and our families.

No doubt the soft-peddling is due to fear of being sued by the likes of SLAPP-happy Monsanto. Could you comment on that? How does one deal with that very real concern? Corrupt electronic balloting probably played a role too if the polls are to be believed, at least in CA.

Yes. But they’ve got 100s of millions. And then if they lose, they regroup, as long as their product hasn’t been discredited and banned.

Why should anyone get motivated to label GMO, if they’re not educated about exactly what’s wrong with GMO?

This is a fight, yet the strategy has been the sedative, isolated message ‘we deserve to know’? When you’re in a fight for your life (and that’s what this is), gouge out eyeballs and go for the windpipe. Don’t just throw punches above the belt and below the throat.

Seems everyone is worried about sounding like loony fringe wackos. The whole US system has become loony fringe wacko. Do your homework to determine the truth as best you can; don’t overstate what you know; speak according to your principles, and let the dice fall as they may.

One has to wonder if the leaders Jon mentions at the end of his article actually believe in their strategy, or if it’s convenient for them that GMO exists, so that labeling can chase more people into their products.

As for suing people, what, Monsanto’s going to sue everyone who speaks out against their product based on fact? If the ‘leaders’ are vulnerable to such tactics, then the movement needs to go leaderless. Suing a bunch of people would be a loss for Monsanto in any case, because it would draw too much attention to the issue.

Wow, thanks for addressing the effective/ineffective aggressive/non-aggressive perspectives as to why activism fails, or not. This is one of my favorite subjects – the strategic and tactical incompetence of US activists is appalling.

I think you’d enjoy a couple of my diaries: “The plutocrats are laughing at you, Part 2: Anti-GMO Activists could be made COMPLETELY irrelevant by TPP (= Economic Treason), are oblivious to the possibility” (http://tinyurl.com/pwu4ydr) and ”
Twisting Your Congress Critters’ Arm – A Goldilocks’-Sized First Step In Domination by the Electorate (Short Version)” (http://tinyurl.com/m29skro)

Just out of curiosity how were the votes counted in Washington State? They were counting using electronic voting machines. Machines which have been proven to have been specifically engineered to be easily and quickly hacked. Machines which hundreds of experts have proven can be easily and quickly hacked. These machines are made by companies who’s management has been caught doing all sorts of nasty things. Companies who have a track record of not doing the right thing. In short, as long as the country continues to use electronic voting machines, the people who own and run the machines control the outcome. Wake up people your vote is meaningless.

Jon, Your analogy to the Vietnam war actually makes a very good point.
The reason there were huge student demonstrations was because many of the students asses were on the line. The parents also got involved because their loved ones’ asses were on the line or their loved ones ended up dead by the thousands.
The GMO problem is a totally different animal and could better be compared to the widespread attitude concerning radiation.
Because of the lag between exposure and possible consequences, the average person doesn’t feel that their ass is on the line. Soooo.. they aren’t about to get concerned enough to take some serious action about the problem.
This also goes for the loss of our legal rights. If the individual isn’t indefinitely detained (with their ass in the cage), they aren’t going to consider taking any action to reclaim their freedoms.
Many individuals will talk tough about these issues until they need to take a stand and put their back or their wallet into the issue.
Your comment about Roundup is another important one in this regard.
Yes it’s poison, but I can tell you from my own observations that in my neighborhood of green weed-free lawns, I’m the only one I’ve ever seen that spends any time hand weeding the lawn. The rest are using Roundup themselves or pay a lawn service to spray Roundup on their lawns.
Soooooo…..I wouldn’t expect much of a change in the convenience mentality that the typical individual exhibits concerning these issues.
Unfortunately, as a result of the widespread lack of awareness, what we’re experiencing is death by a thousand cuts.

When you wage war you dont worry if every body’s uniform is pressed, or are we all using the same guns, or its raining today we’ll get wet if we fight. Or your protest sign is blue and mind yellow….shit! We don’t match.
Fight tooth and nail, fight like a little guy in a bar fight. Light a fire under passion. These bastards are the bastards.
Bronner and the leaders are afraid of their lossing of market share. So…they are polite. This is a advertising campaign for them anyway.
You are going to get a bloody nose. So prepare for it. I saw the Democracy Now report Bronner was pathetic, blame blame. I admire his support in money to the cause, he has good products…But. You need some good ole fashion Irish Street fighters. You need some in there who have nothing to loose at all. You are fighting money and Grass roots will never have enough. The law is unjust break it.
I believe people are afraid to vote against it, that they might be punished. Even the ones that voted for labeling to proudly stand up publically say I voted for food labeling. GMO is poison.

I think that the labeling law votes and disputes is a distraction. Do we really need more laws? I don’t think so anymore. Either way we the people no longer control the vote. In California there was tinkering with the vote in the northern counties where Monsanto has a stronghold. Further there was behind the scenes wheeling and dealing in Washington state in regard to supposed organic companies who went ahead and funded the no vote. There are already responsible companies with the non gmo label right on the package, they also have no transfats and no soy (as soy is a thyroid, unless its fermented properly then its a health food). If the US public buys from these companies who are already a responsible steward of their product and thus of their customers the other companies who are fighting labeling will begin to label non GMO on their product packaging and thus get rid of the GMOs. We can and do control the country with our spending, more so now with our digital voter machines no longer reliable. I buy non GMO organic and only support those companies. I also buy non nitrate lunch meat, bacon etc. Nitrates cause cancer, I had a cousin with brain cancer and the first thing the surgeon asked us was did he eat a lot of nitrates as in lunch meat, bacon and the cold processed beers (they are quickly processed with nitrates apparently) we said actually yes he did eat lunch meats and drink cold processed beer! Well the surgeon went on to say that that’s usually the cause. We were stunned, the surgeon knew what caused the cancer and said so! We wanted to shout it from the rooftops and have told everyone we know. Protect yourself take responsibility for your own health, wealth and safety. America is a big nasty high school like hierarchy out there, if you don’t take care of yourself, no one else will and in fact they care little about you, unless they need something! Pursue your own path, find joy and protect yourself and your family responsibly everyday and teach others to do the same. That is the path to freedom, not forcing labeling. The dollar is the power use it wisely!

I so appreciate this rant. Yes rant, an empassioned expression! The “natural foods network” where many GMO so-called leaders reside, can’t even rid itself of GMOs because of fear of being not nice. My best guess is probably 20-25% of items in “health food groceries, coops and others” have GMO ingredients, esp cereals and supplements, as opposed to regular groceries where all sources from all sides agree that number is 70-80% and in a few years will be even higher. How have we come to have MOST of our food be poisoned? We have all become shoppers, that essential component of industrialized capitalism, where our biggest depth of thought is “Which brand should I buy?” And for a moment our creative urge thinks its satisfied by that choice. But that faux satisfaction quickly dissipates so what do we do? Shop more. And what better product to refine the conditioning around than food, because everyone needs food. And where did my own consciousness start developing around looking critically at the branding of food? After a conversation in 2000 with a long time employee of Dr Bronners who pointed out to me the 1975 introduction of branding into the Natural Foods Industry with the advent of The Natural Foods Merchandiser. How ironic.

Thank you Jon, for this powerful article/essay. What you spelled out above is the exact sentiment of millions of people all over the world. Most of the GMO petitions reaching our in-boxes, lobby for GMO labeling. BS! This when MONSANTO IS POISONING PEOPLE! Killing people! Why should we crawl up to these fiends by campaigning for labeling when we should be demanding they’re shutdown, nay their whole evil corporation be wiped off the face of this earth. I will not sign a petitions for labeling, as these petitions give these b*stards the right to continue destroying our Planet, while raking in billions!!
The time has come where we need to realize that collectively we are a massive force able to bring about change not only for ourselves and our children, but for posterity. Here is to People Power for Our Planet! – Billions of voices as ONE! We can do it!! Oh Dear God give us the strength & staying power to rid ourselves of Monsanto’s Killer Foods! Not only is the farmers of Rural America a massive voice, but so is the voice of all farmers all over the world. Jon, get all the well-known voices together and start such a petition and all the other petitions we need to grab our planet back from the evil ones! Globally people will be behind you like a unstoppable tsunami!!

Spot on, my good man! Spot on! It isn’t just the VOTER that’s in a deep hypnotic trance – it’s the ACTIVIST! If a godlike corporation wanted to suborn the vote, they’d do the usual undermining tactics – torque the news media whose umbilical is tied to commercial food advertising (and pharmaceuticals, since GMO people later get very sick), buy off every available Agri district, where there is little/no resistance and promote the usual FUD (fear-uncertainty-doubt) campaign in these districts. And be SURE you get your insiders [aka “plants”] in the pro-labeling groups to hire a top-flight, company-endorsed “leader” to head the campaign.

I’d love to see the financial records of those “ringers” that led these campaign. Bet there’d be some real surprises in there.